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Message no. 1
From: Garbage Garbage@******.net
Subject: Prison and Adepts
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 19:21:32 -0700
An interesting question came up when starting a new game group. One of the
players has a criminal record and has done prison time. He is an adept
with killing hands.

Question: What does the prison system do with adepts?

With mages, drugs, masks, wards, etc, can be used, but what about adepts??

I work at a prison in the real world, and the only comparison is someone
who has martial arts skills. Basically, if they get caught "using" their
skill (which is rather difficult since inmates don't "fight" they just have
people who "fall off their bunks, fell downstairs, in the shower, etc"

So, going along this line, adepts could be quite the enforcer in the prison
system.

Any ideas would be helpful

;)
Mamoulian
Message no. 2
From: Simon Fuller sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: Prison and Adepts
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 12:42:21 +1000
-----Original Message-----
From: Garbage <Garbage@******.net>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Monday, March 20, 2000 12:21 PM
Subject: Prison and Adepts


>An interesting question came up when starting a new game group. One of the
>players has a criminal record and has done prison time. He is an adept
>with killing hands.
>
>Question: What does the prison system do with adepts?
>
>With mages, drugs, masks, wards, etc, can be used, but what about adepts??
>
>I work at a prison in the real world, and the only comparison is someone
>who has martial arts skills. Basically, if they get caught "using" their
>skill (which is rather difficult since inmates don't "fight" they just have
>people who "fall off their bunks, fell downstairs, in the shower, etc"
>
>So, going along this line, adepts could be quite the enforcer in the prison
>system.
>
>Any ideas would be helpful
>
>;)
>Mamoulian
>
The whole penal system as applying to mages would be very draconian by
necessity. Human rights abuses would be athe only way to keep them in check.
Maybe they need special VR facilities for adepts where they dont meet any
real inmates, or maybe they wear big gloves full of fat bacteria or a
nutrient soup full of microbes. This would make them even more vulnerable to
attacks from others, though...
One thing's for sure, an adept sent to prison would soon learn killing hands
just to survive. And if the guards didn't know about it, well...
Message no. 3
From: . s t e f a n stefan@*****.org
Subject: Prison and Adepts
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 03:57:05 +0100
>An interesting question came up when starting a new game group. One of the
>players has a criminal record and has done prison time. He is an adept
>with killing hands.
>
>Question: What does the prison system do with adepts?
>
>With mages, drugs, masks, wards, etc, can be used, but what about adepts??

<rant warning>ok so i rant some and talk to myself in the mail</rant warning>

There was a thread about this a month or two ago but then it was about
mages, but i guess the same applies. Don't really remember what conclusions
we drew from it all but thinking about it again i'd have to say: drugs,
cause it is cheap and you don't have to have any special fancy facilities
to store them (the adepts in this case) in. So they would probably pump
them full of it on a regular basis, feeding time comes to mind and then let
them go about there business in the prison population stoned.

Guess they could build special prisons for the magically active and then
put up a bad-ass ward around the place but I wouldn't think it would be
such a good idea to have a bunch of hostile magic users locked up in one
place. Can't imagine anyone being happy about being locked up and all them
magic users together could probably do some serious mojo if they started
cooperating.

Wonder what kinda background count a prison has ? OK so that doesn't really
stop adepts but I was thinking along the lines of magic users again, that
could turn into a real pain to keep them in line .. alittle ... probably
not for very long thou.

For magic users you also has the beloved magemask, hood with straps to keep
them from seeing and doing pretty much anything but that can't really be
used in the long run, can't imagine it anyway. You can't put all magic
users in solitary with wards around them either just imagine the amount of
security magicians they would have to employ just to keep all the magic
users inside in check. I frankly don't see any other solution than drugging
them. Guess if you want to be cruel you could always do alittle lobotomy
but i don't know what kinda effect that would have on magic.

Can recall from some sourcebook that crimes done using magic are always
worse than just "normal" crimes so I guess they could justify harsher
sentences for such criminals. But I doubt surgery would be an option so i
am going with DRUGS.

A stimpatch a day keeps the spirits away, or something :)

.stefan




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"frag you and the datastream you came on!" - sinjin the decker
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Message no. 4
From: Simon Fuller sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: Prison and Adepts
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 13:31:47 +1000
-----Original Message-----
From: . s t e f a n <stefan@*****.org>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Monday, March 20, 2000 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: Prison and Adepts


>
>>An interesting question came up when starting a new game group. One of
the
>>players has a criminal record and has done prison time. He is an adept
>>with killing hands.
>>
>>Question: What does the prison system do with adepts?
>>
>>With mages, drugs, masks, wards, etc, can be used, but what about adepts??
>
><rant warning>ok so i rant some and talk to myself in the mail</rant
warning>
>
>There was a thread about this a month or two ago but then it was about
>mages, but i guess the same applies. Don't really remember what conclusions
>we drew from it all but thinking about it again i'd have to say: drugs,
>cause it is cheap and you don't have to have any special fancy facilities
>to store them (the adepts in this case) in. So they would probably pump
>them full of it on a regular basis, feeding time comes to mind and then let
>them go about there business in the prison population stoned.
>
>.stefan
>

A friend of mine who went to prison said that he smoked dope in there a
grand total of once. Someone offered him some of their joint, and for the
next three hours he had every huge assault and batterer eying him off and
saying "Youre stoned, why didn't you give any to me, prick?" He went and hid
until the effects wore off and was always too afraid to have any again. My
point here is can you imagine the shelf life of a mage in prison that is
given narcotics daily? especially since mages tend to be weedy little guys
and maybe bubba always wanted to have a piece of a mage (take that whatever
way you like) but was afraid of the magical retribution, but now there's a
mage with no power. It would be worse for physads. "You so tough, killing
three of my gangers in that bar with your bare hands. Well lets see how well
you fight with moderate stun and no magic enhancements." Every tough would
want to prove his superiority while there was a chance. I kind of think that
the magically active would either have their crimes ignored because they are
just too much trouble to incarcerate, or would 'die while attempting
escape'. I could show a real world parallel, but it would cause way too much
trouble.

What you really need is a pair of glasses that showed only a digital view of
the world that lock on and a collar that presented an astral barrier on the
wrist, neck or waist. No line of sight, no astral, just touch range spells
that tend to be limited to healing and such by my recollection, but a wet
suit would fix that.
Message no. 5
From: Mark Imbriaco mark.imbriaco@*****.com
Subject: Prison and Adepts
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 01:25:57 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 19 Mar 2000, Garbage wrote:

> An interesting question came up when starting a new game group. One of the
> players has a criminal record and has done prison time. He is an adept
> with killing hands.
>
> Question: What does the prison system do with adepts?
>
> With mages, drugs, masks, wards, etc, can be used, but what about adepts??
>
> I work at a prison in the real world, and the only comparison is someone
> who has martial arts skills. Basically, if they get caught "using" their
> skill (which is rather difficult since inmates don't "fight" they just have
> people who "fall off their bunks, fell downstairs, in the shower, etc"
>
> So, going along this line, adepts could be quite the enforcer in the prison
> system.

This post just gave me an idea for FAB filled nanites that could be
injected so as to reduce the body's ability to channel mana. That should
work with both mages and adepts. Hrm.

I'm going to go off and think about that one. =)

-Mark
Message no. 6
From: Richard Tomasso rtomasso@*******.com
Subject: Prison and Adepts
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 12:33:51 -0500 (EST)
Garbage wrote:
>
> An interesting question came up when starting a new game group. One of the
> players has a criminal record and has done prison time. He is an adept
> with killing hands.
>
> Question: What does the prison system do with adepts?

Why would they need to do anything special? If they're worried about them
breaking out of their cell, put up a ward or similar device. If the prison
knows the adept has killing hands, then the next time they see a fist-shaped
hole in something, the adept will be the first suspect.

Since the adept can't cast spells or do much remotely, he isn't nearly the
threat a mage is. Enforcing rules against magical ability use should be
enough to keep him in line. "gee, you used your enhanced reflexes in that
fight... that'll be an extra two weeks in solitary"

They could fit him with a tranq system that could be set off by remote
and all the guards have activators. Throw in a locator cuff to counteract
stealth abilities and the adept can be easily contained.

Further Reading

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